Boy, 1, shot in New Haven

Published 10:28 pm, Wednesday, October 10, 2012

NEW HAVEN -- A 1-year-old boy is recovering at Yale-New Haven Hospital after he was hit by a stray bullet during a drive-by shooting Wednesday afternoon.

Police said Tramire Miller was sitting with his aunt on the porch of their Kensington Street home around 2:30 p.m. when a car pulled up and opened fire. Miller was hit in the stomach. His father scooped him up and ran a few blocks to St. Raphael's Hospital.

Miller underwent surgery at St. Raphael's and was later transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital's pediatric unit, where he was listed in critical condition Wednesday night. Officials said the boy is expected to survive.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, who visited the family at the hospital along with Police Chief Dean Esserman, said Tramire high-fived a nurse as he was moved into the Yale-New Haven pediatric unit.

"He wasn't crying," DeStefano said at a news conference. "He was calm, he had a lot of people standing around him poking at him and I thought he was pretty good about the whole thing."

Police have not yet located the shooters, but said they are following several leads and have collected witness statements and physical evidence. Officer David Hartman, police spokesman, said the gunshots may have been fired by an occupant of a blue, black or dark-colored sedan, possibly an Acura, Nissan Altima or Honda, as it traveled sout hon Kensington street from Edgewood Avenue, toward Chapel Street.

"This violence belongs to us all and only together do we just say, we have to stop it, a child of New Haven is a child of us all," Esserman said.